Computers and associated devices or systems, such as storage subsystems, are commonly arranged into networks to allow intercommunication. Often, such networks must accommodate a vast number of such computers, for example, varying from small personal computer systems and workstations to large data processing host systems. The specific computers and devices are subject to arbitrary change, for example, as newer computer systems become available.
As the result, the management of the network is very complex. In order to perform network management, network management tools employing software applications have been developed. For example, developers would provide a network manager that may periodically poll devices, called network "nodes", connected to the network to determine the systems or devices and their operability. This approach is often called the "ping" approach, and required specific response characteristics between the node and the network manager.
The developments also were directed at managing traffic and error conditions on the network and other issues. To accommodate the various network managers, standards, such as SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) were developed to facilitate development among different network management suppliers. SNMP outlines particular protocol for data that may be gathered, allowing developers to write their applications, knowing that any device or system which complies with the standard will provide the data in accordance with the protocol.
In SNMP, the data is provided in a management information base ("MIB"), which is a data structure in a network management application in the network resource. The MIB has fields that, once established, are fixed. For example, in an exemplary application, certain groups of data are provided: Node ID, Statistics, History, Alarm, Packet Capture, and Events. This data may be queried by the network manager, requesting specific data from specific fields of the MIB. In order to accommodate high speed access and response by the node device, the node MIBs are dedicated, often with fixed specific code.
In a typical major data processing system, a number of "client" data processors are coupled to one or more storage management servers over a network, and the server receives data files from the clients and stores them on several attached storage devices. The storage management server manages the back-up, archival, and migration of the client files. The user of the network manager thus may wish to receive information relating to the operation of the server, and may wish to change the information received from the server on a dynamic basis.
For example, the quantities of data stored in the storage server, the types of stored data, and the media on which the data are stored, the number of clients logged on (sessions), and the rates of back-up, archiving, and migration of the files are subject to variability, and the network user may wish to understand particular aspects of the storage management server not contemplated as sufficiently important to include in the received information by the network management developer.